Learning Stream

27th March 2020

LOCKDOWN? Load up on these RESOURCES: What to do with all your time on the internet

Hello all you beautiful people. I am in New Zealand, (it's a far off land of dream and mystery.) I was taking my allotted daily exercise walk with George and noticed a twig that was suspended floating in the air, with vines wrapped around it. Just like global community eh? There's so many resources and useful bits of information I've come across in these last days here's a big sexy list, and comment on any other stuff you come across..

NHS: 🐉
o advice, General and regularly updated https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
o Check if you have coronavirus symptoms, and get advice if you do https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19/
o Self-isolation advice if you/someone you live with has symptoms https://www.nhs.uk/…/coronavirus-cov…/self-isolation-advice/

Exercise: 🦚
o I’m doing yoga and more at www.grokker.com/for-individuals - it’s like going to a real class but free during isolation for the next 39 days! And you can cancel before you pay if you don’t want to continue.

Education: 🐡
o 450 Ivy League Education courses for free https://www.freecodecamp.org/…/ivy-league-free-online-cou…/…
o Adobe Creative Cloud Suite Certification Bundle, usually $1300 is now available for $34 for all things videos and graphic design, more info here https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/345915…
o More free online courses form universities around the world, some really cool stuff in there http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

Live Art: 🦄
o Life Lecture, an online collective lecture about you delivered by you. Leave a good bit of time to do it, I haven’t yet so am v excited. All info here http://www.lifelecture.net/about
o Live Art Development Agency’s online screenings of seminal performance, one video available at a time and changed regularly https://vimeo.com/channels/ladascreens
o Artists on being an artist videos from talks https://vimeo.com/channels/artistsonbeinganartist
o Artists on disability videos https://vimeo.com/channels/artistsondisability
o A whole bunch of fab audio content and audio-series on all things live art https://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/resources/listen-online/…
o Even more resources from LADA https://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/…/covid-19-support-resour…/…

Art: 🐦
o A dozen world-class museums giving virtual tours https://www.travelandleisure.com/…/museums-with-virtual-tou…
o 500+ galleries around the world, all available to see their collections virtually https://artsandculture.google.com/partner?hl=en

Theatre/performance: 🐛
o Some of my favourite performances online
 -Iconic Butoh group Sankai Juju in Battersea Power station when it was all derelict in the 90’s https://youtu.be/ZUT5aIFEMVk
 -Butoh legend Ko Murobushi’s performance ‘Ritournelle’ for all your silver Butoh needs https://youtu.be/3oRLt7fFn_I
 -The COVID-19 chamber choir https://www.youtube.com/watch…
o 5 ways to watch plays online https://www.timeout.com/…/home-stage-five-ways-you-can-stil…
o You can even check out my website here https://practicingfrank.com/ and what I dance to here https://practicingfrank.com/music-i-dance-to

30+ Virtual field trips: https://docs.google.com/…/1SvIdgTx9djKO6SjyvPDsoGl…/preview…

Mental health: 🐣
o On mental wellbeing, including useful links for your employment rights https://www.nhs.uk/…/coronavirus-covid-19-staying-at-home-…/
o On challenging unhelpful thoughts and reframing, breaking negative thought cycles, see link under ‘top tips to improve your mood’ https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/low-mood/#
o If you need someone to talk to who won’t judge you, you can call or email the Samaritans 24 hours/day on 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org – really helped me in some particularly low moments of my life. More info on what a call is all about here https://www.samaritans.org/…/contact-samarit…/talk-us-phone/
o Health and wellbeing by and for people with autism, read or contribute https://autismhwb.com/

Money: 🐸
o Huge Lexicon of everything money and Covid-19 here https://www.mentalhealthandmoneyadvice.org/…/mental-health…/
o How to budget during this time, everything you need to think of https://www.mentalhealthandmoneyadvice.org/…/how-to-budget…/
o With zero-hour contracts you may be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay but you can also claim benefits such as Universal Credit. With Universal credit it takes 5 weeks to come through but you can get an Advance Payment while waiting. More info on if you can apply for it here https://www.mentalhealthandmoneyadvice.org/…/what-is-unive…/
o Universal Credit for if you have children info here https://www.mentalhealthandmoneyadvice.org/…/what-if-i-car…/

Community: 🐙
o Volunteer in Tower Hamlets to help the older and more vulnerable people with Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets
 More on the centre at https://www.vcth.org.uk/
 Register your interest at https://vcconnectsystem.org.uk/…/Volu…/DetailsForSearch/1711
o Volunteer your skills pro bono to community organisations that need your specific expertise https://helptank.nz/search/ (New Zealand)
o Support local food banks, these are in Tower Hamlets and you can donate online
 https://www.spacehive.com/firstlovefoundation
 https://www.spacehive.com/bowfoodbank
o Someone I went to school with is cycling round and delivering her extra books to you in need of entertainment if you’re in South London https://uk.news.yahoo.com/south-west-londons-book-fairy-193…

And there are so, so many other things I have yet to check out.

After I finished my list here I found this even bigger and better one. 🦕 What a world! Check it out https://chatterpack.net/…/list-of-online-resources-for-anyo…

🐫🐫🐫

AND IF YOU'VE READ THIS FAR, well done. 10 points to [insert your house in Hogwarts here] and a talk by very special Thai forest monk here called Still Flowing Water https://ajahnchah.org/book/Still_Flowing_Water1.php.

31st March 2020

Reading Boals’s Legislative Theatre 1 week in lockdown NZ

Reading: Legislative Theatre: using performance to make politics

Key quote:

The TV hardly ever presents Subjunctive or Conditional images, that is images which allow us to think, to imagine, to invent, images which instil doubt or allow fancy. And when the TV gives the impression of democratising, it does so in an even more authoritarian manner: I, the TV, decide that you can only decide between option A and option B. You decide….[1]

To do: think, imagine, invent, instil doubt and allow fancy. Document your impressions throughout this process.

Before delving into nitty gritty of the ideologies, practices, examples, politics, histories of Brazilian activist, theatre-maker and politician Augusto Boal in Legislative Theatre: using performance to make politics; there is a manual - ‘How to read this book.’

I remember the books as a younger person where there were many adventure paths contained within, one made a choice and was sent to a new page and then a new one again. This manual on how to read Legislative Theatre is like an meta upgrade on this form. Boal encourages readers to be active and read the book in any order according to our ‘needs, preferences, curiosities and desires.’[2] I was very touched to see when he included his address at the end of this manual. All the academic papers encouraging dialogue I have read, and yet here is his address, asking for ‘impressions, comments, suggestions, additions, propositions [and] desires to’[3].

Today my partner sat me down and told me he was worried about me. I don’t do the things that would make me happy, I find it hard to be more active in my life. I’m always just watching TV (or it’s modern form, YouTube and Netflix.) says he.

Says I as well…I know what he meant as it’s something I’ve struggled with on and off for my life. If there’s something immediately to do then it’s easier to do, and if it’s not immediate then it’s for later me to deal with. It made me sad what he said today but it certainly gave me a kick up the arse, I drew for a while and then sat down to read Legislative Theatre. And look at that inside Boal had some thoughts on TV, perfect for my needs.

His arguments went loosely as follows:

‘[A] transitive dialogue is well nigh impossible: there is only monologue’[4] with TV. The interchange is one gives and one receives, one cannot go across to the TV and impact upon it. By the time a signal reaches you, despite the movement and light one could say it is inanimate, already dead. Like hair grown on the body.

Boal goes on to write ‘Obedience is the only option left to us.’[2] I smiled reading this to myself, no wonder I love being dominated, it’s a submissive behaviour I’ve been practicing for years being sat in front of screen spectres! But back to Boal, this obedience comment was part of a larger observation on the different influence and control tactics used in video media, giving the example of constantly shifting camera perspectives. This does not allow the mind to even process, to chew and taste and discern what is going on in the image before it changes again, one must swallow whole. One may see the TV but one does not see TV. See clearly anyways for oneself, one is lead along, a dog on a walk; ‘with images of reality, the TV director creates a new reality….[one of] a hypnotic trance’[5]. I wonder who it is that is so hypnotised, Boal here specifies the viewer but perhaps it is not necessarily only the viewer who is bewitched, entranced. The new realities of social medias, lives lived completely quarantined from each other, it does seem we’re all under some kind of persuasion. We decide to be x or y in pre-approved, pre-defined models.

‘Television – as it currently exists – is the opposite of art, since the artist is the person who helps us to see what we tend to only look at, and to listen to what we only tend to hear.’[1]

What a powerful statement! It leaves me feeling unsure as to how to further elaborate, it’s one of those things that is experiential, one tends to know when one is just hearing words instead of listening to, beneath, above, around and through them. One can feel when one sees, the pouring out of oneself in the act of observing, the highway that is created of constant stream between one’s ocular cavities and what one is seeing. The resonance of seeing and listening, the vacuous nature of looking and hearing.

Life is incessant argues Boal (says he, says me, and so say all of us.) It just goes on, the basic needs of survival come around knocking often, the racket they make! It is, has been and will be ceaseless. What breaks the cycle? Many individuals, groups, corporations, governments and meerkats posit different things, Buddhists have some of the most convincing arguments in my experience. But to this Boal and his practical interface that is Theatre of the Oppressed, it is IMAGE and SOUND.

‘[A]n image is the organisation of infinite space’ just as ‘rhythm is the organisation of infinite time’[6]

What can break the incessant, persistent and ceaseless life is a different organisation of it, presented, options available to live within. Images and sounds in theatre/art/Instagram could be the very reorganising, defragmenting of other presented images. TV can you fuck off, and all of that.

And look at the circularness of the world! I check my email after writing and come across this from the Museum of Modern Art Bologne.

‘Until Sunday, April 5, every day, from Tuesday to Sunday as symbolically the museum’s opening days, at 3pm a new contribution is published on the YouTube MAMbo Channel (2 Minuti di MAMbo Playlist), and then re-launched on the museum’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter social platforms.

In a consecutive rotation a 2–3 minutes clips—just the time of a song—focus on four thematic areas: the temporary exhibition AGAINandAGAINandAGAINand, which investigates the theme of loop, of repetition and cyclicity in the contemporaneity through the works of seven among the best known contemporary artists (Ed Atkins, Luca Francesconi, Apostolos Georgiou, Ragnar Kjartansson, Susan Philipsz, Cally Spooner, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)’

Quotations all from Augusto Boal, trans. Adrian Jackson, Legislative Theatre: using performance to make politics (London, Routledge, 1998)

[1] From ‘Images can be conjugated like verbs’ p81

[2] From ‘How to read this book’ p ix

[3] From ‘How to read this book’ p xiii

[4] From ‘In search of a subjunctive image’ p79

[5] From ‘Images can be conjugated like verbs’ p80-81

[6] From ‘SOUND AND VOICE’ p84

I began writing this Learning Stream because…

…I have often felt a cringe shudder through me when the word inspirational is tagged on to this or that. The response “that was so inspiring!” seems equivalent to another in the conversation remarking “that’s so funny!” instead of laughing. I find inspiration in consistent dedication which multiplies love, understanding, development and further creativity.

On a windy Wellington January morning, I volunteered at web-designer CharliMarie’s presentation. After giving everyone some biscuits and name tags I listened to what she said. It inspired me to write on the stream of learning I’ve dipped in to as an artist in London. Now I’ve been in the process of relocating out of London, and hitting Thailand, Laos and now New Zealand along the way, means my learning has gone international!

I wish to pass on content that is valuable as others have been kind enough to do and which has so helped me. I wish to have more confidence in the absolute necessity of creative “side-hustles.”

I deeply desire to advocate for access in and to the arts. To learn more about what that takes, there’s going to be a lot of side-hustles, lectures, workshops, writing, odd-jobs and love.

creative mornings event, copyright creative mornings — CreativeMornings Wellington 31st Jan ‘20

*What I gleamed from working and listening to this event*

CharliMarie is a web-designer and remote worker, with a well-established YouTube channel and Twitter platform. She was speaking about self promotion in downtown Wellington on the morning of 31 January 2020. The event was completely sold-out but they were looking for volunteers to help run it - so that’s how I got in.

Having spent the past five months either in countries where I don’t speak the language, or on the road with my lovely partner, it was a beautiful opportunity to be able to greet over 100 people. The name tags I handed out asked attendees to write not just their name, but where their roots can be found.

At 7:45am not everybody was ready for such an existential question, we all laughed.

The presentation was snappy and covered a number of useful suggestions which were not about shortcuts, but actually about creating more and being involved in the community. She re-framed self-promotion: it’s not about fame, but building a reputation around your niche.

When considering self-promotion, CharliMarie recommends following these three steps:

Get clarity
Evaluate
Create, and then action an Action Plan

How does one get clarity?

Ask the question: what do you want to be known for?

The answer could be many things of course, but Charli’s advice was to focus on:

Skills
Character

Words that I feel strongly associated to my character, either presently or in aspiration, are: advocate, passionate, fun, creative and generous.

As far as skills go, I dance Butoh and facilitate accessible workshops and events. These are pretty niche as far as niche goes, but this workshop made me question what it is to be a niche person. Sure, I practice in niche areas, but Charli’s advice was to be a specialist in your niche area. The question then arose: what skills do I need to develop to be a specialist? Something to think about.

The law of attraction

We further explored the law of attraction, which in this context we took to mean that what you are and what you put “out there” is what will come back to you. It’s a powerful idea, and not just for your career. I feel that the law of attraction is empowering as it denotes agency. Live deliberately, choose what to offer up to the communities you are a part of, and know that you have personal power in what comes to you.

There, naturally, are many barriers of access to some people receiving back their good/deliberate/persistent intentions, offerings and work. I think of the artist collective Drag Syndrome. I met them when they were doing smaller gigs here and there around England and booked them for the unDISTURBED event series I helped produce at the Royal Albert Hall in 2019. A syndicate of highly skilled drag queens and kings with Downs Syndrome; professional and organized, they stole the show and were among the easiest artists I’ve had the pleasure to work with. They are true craftsman, and give everything to each audience, with a highly committed team behind them and some interesting collaborations in the mix, such as with beatboxer Kimmy Beatbox.

Now Drag Syndrome have an extensive international tour under their belt and are often in the press. I can’t think of a better example of the law of attraction; put in effort to develop your craft in a niche, give it out to the community with good intention and serious no quips attitude about accessibility and the right for your performance, and it all comes back to you tenfold.

CREATE CONTENT

Great content. Content which provides genuine value to the world regarding life and process. Teach everything you know, advises Charli, at least a few pieces a year.

The amply multitudinous get-ready videos and drag performance explorations Drag Syndrome have done are the perfect example. So much value has been spread to the drag, arts and wider communities. Disability is not segregated there or made infantile and safe in it’s presentation; it’s raw, outrageous, rebellious and fabulous dahhhlingggggg, of course.

-Francesca Kamil Feb 2020

Practicing Frank